Cross Country

ISLANDERS FINISH SECOND AND THIRD AT SPLASH

Sep 26, 2009

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's and women's cross country
teams faired well in the 2009 Islander Splash with the men
finishing second and the women in third. The top Islander for the
men was Patrick Kemeli who was third overall and for the women,
Anne Ronoh came in second.

Heather Olsen won the race as the first unattached runner coming
in with a time of 17:00.5 just in front of Anne Ronoh, who finished
with a time of 17:05.4.

The Islander women finished third overall in the team standings
on Friday evening and highest of the Southland competing schools.
Coming in first place were the Longhorns of Texas followed by Rice
University.

Four of the top 22 finishers were for the hosts, 10 of the top
48 also were from the Blue and Green. Meghan Lemke, Sarah De Los
Santos and Sheila Salil came in 20-22.

The next wave of runners was BreAnna Briggs and Courtney
Johnson, who came in 28 and 29. Caitlin Arambula was 31, Shelby
Nichols came in 36, Melissa Jones followed in 41 and Kristine
Torres was 48.

"On the women's side we did what I thought we could do, I was
hoping for a little better outcome but we made some progress." said
cross country head coach Shawn Flanagan. "Sheila ran really well,
Sarah ran well and Anne ran superb."

On the men's side Patrick Kemeli was the high Islander coming in
third overall with a time of 25:56. A&M-Corpus Christi placed
four in the top 15 and five in the top 20 of the men's splash.
Arisel Perez came in ninth, Curtis Patton and Eloy Zertuche were 13
and 14.

"The men ran the best race that they have all year, we are
pleased with them since they came together well," said Flanagan.
"I'm very much encouraged, this is the best we've run all year and
as a team they ran well."

Jordan Valle was next at 17, Kirk Dalhiem finished 23, Daniel
Barlow 27 and rounding out at 30 was David Wells giving the team
eight in the top 30. McNeese though edged out the Islanders in the
final score with the Cowboys taking the crown by a 28 to 45
score.

"Not a bad day for the women and very, very good for the men,"
added Flanagan on his teams performance Friday evening.